


Come To My Window

by SusieBeeca



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abuse, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Awkward Flirting, Backstory, F/F, Off Colors, Pillow Fights, Pre-Canon, Pre-fusion, Ruby is implied to have ADHD, Sewing, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 05:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15188090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusieBeeca/pseuds/SusieBeeca
Summary: In the quiet doldrums of the night, a Pearl meets a Ruby in a most unexpected way.Set shortly afterJust In Timeand shortly beforeThe Price Of Everything; The Value Of Nothing.This story is intended as a stand-alone, but if you'd like to get more information on the world this is set in, you can check out those stories, too!





	Come To My Window

The thread darkened as Pearl ran it over her tongue, and she deftly twisted the frayed end into a fine point. She shifted her cramping legs as she threaded the needle and started on the final stretch of fabric. The bedskirt was so ancient it was almost crumbling in her delicate grasp; it should have been replaced long ago, but in the short time she’d been serving Morganite, Pearl had learned that the old harridan would rather spit in the face of a Diamond than part with any of her wealth. Why replace what could be repaired?

Besides, she had a Pearl now, and what were Pearls for, if not mindless drudgery?

_Tap!_

The tiny noise made her jump, and she bit back a curse as she dropped a stitch. Picking it back out, Pearl let her eyes wander up to the bed. Though she tried not to think about it too much, she was quite glad her time here had been spent at the base of the bed… and never _in_ it.

_Tap!_

Pearl pressed her lips together in an effort to focus on the task at hand. She knew Morganite would be going over her handiwork with a magnifying glass, and a single slipped stitch would warrant a punishment. She couldn’t let herself be distracted by something as simple as a rattling window.

_Tap!_

_It’s probably nothing,_ she told herself, hissing as she pricked her thumb. To entertain herself, she began to sing that quiet song she’d often used to help soothe Padparadscha after a hard day, but she didn’t get past the first stanza before---

_Tap! Tap! Tap! **Taptaptaptap!!**_

Sighing, Pearl dropped the bedskirt and stuck her needle in the pincushion. The mending would just have to wait; if there was something wrong with the window, Morganite would probably want that addressed first.

When she finally looked up to see what was making that noise, the gasp that tried to jump from her throat came out in a squeak. _By the Diamonds above!_ It was that Ruby guard---the one she’d briefly met earlier---and she had her face pressed against the crystal pane, steadying herself with one hand as she used the other to give a jaunty wave.

Pearl’s jaw fell open. It wouldn’t have been surprising if she’d been on the first floor… but she was on the forty-seventh.

Panic punched at her chest, and before she knew it Pearl had bounded right across the room; she cracked the window open just enough for Ruby to lean in, and met her bubbly “Hi!” with a sharp _“Are! You! **Insane?!**_ ”

It looked like she was trying to be cocky, but her sweet smile was far too genuine for that. “So what if I am? All the best gems are a little cracked, y’know!”

Pearl put a hand over her gem and briefly closed her eyes as she waited for the palpating around her setting to ease away. “Oh my stars. You’re going to crack _me_.” She opened her eyes and tried to fix Ruby an angry glare, but she wavered. “You’re almost fifty stories above the street! If you slip---”

Ruby rested her chin in her fist, her eyes shining with a mischievous light. “If I slip? Who’s gonna push me? You?”

She clucked her tongue as she looked past the guard and into the dark, yawning night. From this height, she couldn’t see the bottom of the edifice, let alone the street below. “How did you even get up here?”

“I hitched a ride with a Lazuli! They’re not as stuck-up as everyone’d have you believe,” she said with a huge grin as she folded one arm over the other on the windowsill. Then, winking: “Got a peek up her skirt, too!”

“Is that so,” Pearl said coolly, hands on her hips. “And how are you planning on getting down?”

Her eyes wandered to the side, and her smile faltered when she looked down to her precarious perch on the narrow ledge. After drumming her fingers against the windowsill for a moment, she glanced back to Pearl. “Hadn’t thought that far,” she admitted.

Pearl huffed, feigning indignation, as she forced the window farther open. “Well you might as well come in now---I don’t want to be the one picking up your pieces.”

With a very un-soldierly giggle, Ruby deliberately leaned away from Pearl’s outstretched hand and rose to her tiptoes. “What’re you talking about?” she said as she danced. “Rubies are made of tough stuff! I couldn’t possibly shatter from this height!”

Pearl tried in vain to pull her back. “Y-yes you could! You could easily---”

The Ruby guard was still laughing, her eyes alight, as she pretended to pirouette on the edge, spinning away from Pearl’s protective grasp. “Aw, don’t be such a fuddy-duddy! Look at me! I’m as agile-footed as a Peeeaaaa _aaAAAH!_ ”

Her heel slipped, her foot skidded from under her, and her arms went pinwheeling through the air as she tottered backwards---

Pearl didn’t think---she just acted. Her arms shot out and she seized the front of Ruby’s uniform, not caring if her ragged nails would tear the fabric, and yanked her back from certain doom with strength she didn’t know she had. Her muscles seized, her arms clamped, and when her conscious mind finally chugged back into action, she realized---bit by bit, like stars blinking back to light after the blaze of a comet---that their faces were so close together she could smell the thin, wispy breaths of startled fear puffing from Ruby’s lips.

So close she could have stolen a kiss.

When she found her voice again, it was stringy. “Don’t you DARE scare me like that ever again.”

Swallowing hard, Ruby nodded and readjusted her footing. “I-I’ll make a note of that.”

Pearl’s shoulders slumped as the fear turned to relief, and though she did relax her grip, she didn’t let go. “Please get in here before you hurt yourself.”

“Pretty bossy for a Pearl, aren’t you?” she said, the twinkle returning to her eyes, and hefted a leg over the lip of the windowframe. She paused, looking down at the deathgrip Pearl still had on her shirt. The Diamond insignia was twisted so much it looked like a star. “Uh, you can let go of me now.”

“Not until you’re on solid ground!”

“Aye-aye, Cap’n!” It took a few grunts of effort, but she finally managed to squirm her way over the sill and onto the carpet. Although she’d landed ungracefully on her side, she rolled onto her ass and threw her hands over her head with a “Ta-da!” that brought a reluctant smile to Pearl’s face.

But the impish expression disappeared when Ruby felt a slim, cool hand slip in hers. “Um… what are you doing?” she said, carefully feeling around the slender fingers.

“Helping you up, silly.”

“Oh! Of course.”

When she got to her feet again, she had to look up, and Pearl to look down, for them to see eye-to-eye, but neither seemed to mind. Ruby shyly pulled her hand back and ran it through her starchy curls, shifting around to get her uniform back in place. “I thought _I_ was supposed to be the gentle-gem here,” she said with an awkward chuckle, and Pearl bit her lower lip, trying not to enjoy the startling flutter in her belly.

Ruby then did a double-take, suddenly realizing exactly which room she’d fumbled her way into, and her eyes widened as she gazed around in wonder. “Whoa… are these Morganite’s chambers?”

After Pearl’s quiet “Mm-hm,” Ruby brought her hands to her cheeks just like a newborn as she took in the marvels in front of her. “Oh,” she gasped, her arms trembling, “It’s… it’s… so… _beautiful!_ ”

That made Pearl cock an eyebrow. She’d been in much nicer chambers than this. Hell, she’d been in much nicer _sheds_ than this. Morganite was known for digging after finding a rock-bottom price, and the room rightfully looked like the dusty storage unit of an end-of-lot auction house. But Ruby seemed as enthralled as if she were gazing at a Diamond.

“Carpets!” she chirped, running her toes back and forth over the pile. “And real curtains on the windows! I knew Ol’ Morg was loaded, but this is just---oh HEY, is that a _BED?!_ ”

Before Pearl could cry out for her to stop, she’d bulldozed right past her and was already scrambling up on the comforter. “Holy schla- _moly_ , I’ve never been on one of these before!” She let out a squeak of surprise when the mattress shifted under her weight. “Ooh, bouncy!”

Pearl brought a hand to her face and sighed. “I just made that bed…”

“It’s got great springs!” she squealed as she bounced, trying to get more air each time. When she came to a wobbling stop, she turned to Pearl, beaming, her arms outstretched. “Hey, wanna try it out? I bet we could have a lot of fun! Let’s wear this mattress out!”

Pearl recoiled with a noiseless gasp, a shaking hand on the bedpost, and her cheeks flushed a deep purple.

Ruby just stared at her, wide-eyed and innocent… until it clicked. Her hands flew to her mouth and she blushed right up to her hairline. “Oh my _stars---!_ I didn’t---! Oh gosh, oh my gosh, I didn’t mean it like _that!_ ”

Pearl gulped. “You---”

“I would never---”

“I don’t---”

“Not that you’re not pretty,” Ruby hurriedly added. “I mean, you’re just a _treat_ for the eyes, but I’m not---I didn’t mean to…”

They both sputtered out around the same time, and for a moment they stared at each other in a truly awkward silence. Ruby scuffed her heel on the sheets, and Pearl dug her nails into her mouth…. But, finally, her nervous giggle broke the tension. “Th-th-thank you,” she stammered down at her white, clenched knuckles. “That’s very sweet of you. Oh, and, um, I think you’re v-very pretty, too.”

“Well! So much for _your_ taste in gems,” she said with a snort, but the little wink she tacked on suggested her self-deprecation was only half-hearted.

Slowly, inch by inch, Pearl’s hand retreated from the bedpost, and she pulled her skirt up by the hem and took a delicate perch beside the guard. The mattress barely shifted under her weight.

She fussed with her frilly uniform for a moment, and Ruby kicked her heels against the mattress, as if they both needed to regain some composure. Ruby got there first: 

“Uh, did I mess up the bed too much?” she said as she smoothed a wrinkle out of the comforter. 

“Oh no, it’s really nothing,” Pearl murmured, tensing her lips to hide the snide expression that wanted to crawl across her face. “A bed like _this_ \---well, it couldn’t look much worse.”

She stared incredulously. “You mean there are beds out there that look even better than this?!”

Pearl’s gaze drifted away. How could she tell this fresh-faced little Ruby that there was more to the world than Morganite and her jealously-guarded hovel? It seemed almost cruel.

“Heh. I guess you’ve been to places a lot nicer than this.” Ruby swung her legs over the side and aimlessly picked at the edge of sheets. Her mouth moved around for awhile before she formed her words: “You, uh, you used to be owned by… what was she, an Emerald, I think?”

“A Sapphire,” she corrected.

“Oh, right! The little orange one,” Ruby said. “I never met her, but I’d heard about her.”

Pearl felt her belly tighten up as she thought back to the sweeter, happier times with her former Mistress. “Yes. She was, er… fairly well known.”

Ruby scoffed with a look of total disrespect Pearl had never seen on a guard’s face before. “Yeah, she was one of the only gems Ol’ Morg could tolerate, and that’s about as close to friendship as the dusty old shingle will ever get.” 

She suddenly jolted when she realized what she’d just said, but smiled in relief when Pearl made a zipping gesture over her mouth.

“ _Sub saxa_ ,” Pearl said, her voice low, and Ruby grinned. She seemed surprised that a rarified Pearl knew the street slang for _‘we speak in secret’_. Impressed, too.

“Seems like you’re a gem with lots of facets,” she said, a little cheeky.

“You too,” Pearl replied. Then, uneasily: “It’s a wonder the two of us have never met before…. this, er… arrangement. Padparadscha didn’t like throwing parties, but she did enjoy having friends over from time to time.” She looked down to her knees. “Morganite didn’t ever…”

“…Leave her cave unless it’s for business,” Ruby finished. “I know. Trust me, she’s about as fun as licking the Chipper.”

Pearl nodded, slow and mournful.

“But it’s not all bad here!” she went on, edging closer, just slightly. “Since she likes being alone so much, the staff get a lot of time off. So long as we don’t…” She made sarcastic finger motions to indicate the quotations, “’Diminish our value’, we can pretty much do as we want so long as we stay in this Quarter. And there’s lots of fun stuff around here! There’s a speakeasy down the street where you can get free snifters if you dance onstage for a few minutes. It’s…” 

She trailed off when she saw the despondent look Pearl was trying to hide behind her hanging ringlets. After taking a few beats to steel herself, Ruby shifted on the bed so that she was a hair’s-breadth from the edge of Pearl’s gauzy skirt. “Hey,” she said quietly, and offered her most reassuring smile when Pearl peeked at her. “It’s gonna be okay, y’know?”

“I know,” she bumbled, “I… just…”

Pulling her legs onto the bed, Ruby crossed her ankles and placed her hands on her boots. “I’m sure Her Clarity had her reasons for gifting you,” she began, her voice unsteady. “It’s probably nothing personal! I mean, you seem really nice. Maybe she just owed Ol’ Morg a debt or something, and---”

It took her a second to realize that choking noise she’d heard was a sob. Before she could stop herself, Ruby reached out and grabbed Pearl’s dainty little hands in her own. “Oh my gosh, don’t cry! Please don’t cry!!”

Pearl tried to speak, but the only noise she could force out was a garbled whimper. She was so used to gems touching her without consent, but the rough fingers that came up to brush the tears off her cheeks felt gentle… almost welcoming.

“I didn’t even think that it was still so fresh for you!” Ruby blurted, pausing only to dry her knuckles on her shorts before returning to Pearl’s soft skin. “You…you must really be hurting,” she said quietly with a frown of concern.

Pearl just nodded against her palm. She couldn’t talk through the lump in her throat, but there was so much she could have said---not the least of which was expressing her befuddlement over the fact that a gem she’d only met in passing seemed to actually care about the feelings Morganite insisted she stamp down. She felt alarmed, she felt scared---she felt _considered_.

The only way she could try to make it clear how much that meant to her was to place her hand over Ruby’s.

After a couple of tentative squeezes, Ruby tried to find something else to stare at, and settled for a loose stitch in the coverlet. “The Sapphire. Did you, um… did you love her?”

She nodded again.

“Did she love you back?”

As much as she wanted to wipe her nose, her ingrained training forbade her from doing something so crass. Instead, she snorted and snuffled until she could speak clearly again. “I h-hope she did,” she mumbled. “In fact, I’m… pretty sure she did. That’s why she gave me away.”

Her face scrunched up. “She gave you away because she loved you? That doesn’t make sense.”

Pearl pressed her toes together. “Sure it does. Love is… complicated, sometimes.”

“Was something wrong with her?”

Pearl’s head snapped straight up, her eyes bugging, but Ruby’s placid countenance hadn’t changed.

“I heard there was something infecting the Sapphires,” she said gently. “But, hey, look---you don’t have to worry about me blabbing! I mean, one, who would I tell? And number B, you’ve got some dirt on me now, too. And, uh…” She chewed on her lip as she pondered what to say next. “I forget what number I’m on but, y’know… I’m not a jerk.” She reached out to Pearl again, but this time hesitated, her hand floating in the air. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

All she could say was a simple “Thank you”---more for Padparadscha’s sake more than her own.

“You know, it’s funny…” Ruby pulled her hand back to wipe off the sweat on her shorts, then returned it to Pearl’s. “I don’t think there really are any dead ends in life. Sometimes when one door closes, another opens.” She snickered. “Or a window.”

A strange kind of laugh broke through the veil of tears, and Pearl pushed her curls off her face. “You’re pretty smart for a Ruby,” she said feebly.

She shrugged, but her smirk undermined the nonchalance she was trying to affect. “What can I say? I’m a cut above.”

“You claimed you hadn’t thought about getting down from that windowsill, but you knew I’d have to let you in!” She playfully punched her elbow. “You planned that all along!”

Her lips pouted out as she tried, in vain, to hide her smile. “Mmmaybe.”

“Well,” Pearl said with a giggle as she coughed away the last of her weeping, “I… think I need to punish you for that.”

Startled, Ruby leaned back and began to say “What are you talking ab---”

But a pillow collided with her face.

It had been little more than a light swat, but she looked gobsmacked. As Pearl nervously lowered the pillow, desperately trying to figure out how to explain that it was meant as a joke, the shock melted from Ruby’s face, and a roguish glint came to her eye. “Oh, so that’s how you roll? Well, two can play at that game!”

She grabbed a pillow and tried to swipe it at Pearl, but she dodged and struck back with another bop to the face. Ruby let out something that she probably thought was a formidable roar, and hopped right up on the mattress. “You got height on your side, but I’ve got _raw charisma_ , baby!! Take _this!_ ”

It missed again.

“And THIS!”

The pillow grazed her shoulder, and Pearl pretended to be fatally wounded, dropping in a feint onto her back; when her opponent scurried closer to make sure she was okay, she gave her a triple-whammy, left and right and left again.

“Oh, you scamp!” She landed a glancing blow and hefted the pillow over her head. “I’ll get you for that!”

“Not if I get you first!”

_Paf! Paf! Paf!_ Silk hissed against skin and the ancient bedsprings started to screech, but the noise was hidden under their growing howls of laughter. Pearl was ready on the attack, but Ruby had figured out her defense plans, and before long she’d pelted her adversary’s knees and hips while keeping one elbow up to protect her face. The tips of Pearl’s hair began to flick with sweat, and Ruby, amidst her thrashing, started to form a lather on the back of her neck. Pearl nearly forced the challenger to the end of the bed, but she fought back valiantly, and eventually the reigning champ had to cede some territory. But she would remain victorious!

_Paf! Paf! POOF!_

First one pillow exploded, then the other. After both weapons busted every seam they had and began spilling their contents, the fight came to a squealing, giggling truce, and when the gems finally slumped down, hands up in mutual surrender, their faces were flushed, tear-streaked with laughter. Their sweaty foreheads came to rest together, and they calmed their panting breaths as the loose stuffing floated down around them.

Still sniffling up her chortles, Pearl looked down to see Ruby’s gem was faintly glowing. It cast a warm light on her pouting belly, and on the ripped pillow she’d dropped to her side. 

That’s when the joy that had been surging inside of her spluttered, and Pearl’s loose hands tightened. “Oh… oh no. Morganite’s going to kill me for this.”

“Nah,” Ruby replied easily with a toss of her hand. “Not if I help you clean up.” Then her smile dimmed a bit, though her gem did not. “I mean… I’m responsible for this mess, anyway.”

Happiness, frightful and shocking, splintered inside her like stars in a nebula. “Don’t be silly. I won that pillowfight, didn’t I?”

The corners of her eyes crinkled up. “Oh, _sure_ you did!”

“You, er…” Pearl reached over and plucked a scrap of ribbon from Ruby’s curls. “You have something in your hair.”

She watched as Pearl brought it to her lap and began turning it over and over in her hands, then looked down at their makeshift battlefield. “Wow, we really did a number on those pillows!” She gulped when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Pearl slipping that scrap of ribbon inside her gem. “We’d better hurry up and fix ‘em before Ol’ Morg finds out.”

“Before I find out _what_ , exactly?”

That voice, as dry and chalky as the gem it came from, froze Ruby to the spot---but Pearl’s reaction was much more vocal. Though her screech shook the windowpane, their owner didn’t even flinch. Her only movement was to tighten the glare she had affixed on her guard. “And it is _‘Morganite’_ to you, 7Y1.”

Ruby’s face had gone almost as sallow as her boss’, and her neck made audible pops as she slowly turned. Her arms shook, but she still somehow lifted them into them a formal salute. “O-o-of c-c-course, M-My Morg-g-g-anite,” she stuttered. “My m-most _regal_ M-Morgani-i-i-te.”

Pearl’s gem was throbbing so hard she feared she might knock it right off the setting. _Oh stars, no. No, no, no, no…!_

Morganite’s skirts billowed over her feet as she gracefully stepped into the room and clicked the door shut behind her. After brushing away a loose strand of pillow-fibre that was floating in front of her, she folded her arms and tilted her chin towards her Pearl with a look that could’ve halted a supernova in its tracks. “Pearl, _sweetheart _\---would you mind explaining to me why my Ruby guard is sitting next to you on _my bed?_ ”__

__“I…” Pearl looked down at her hands, but they felt numb, so cold and stiff, as if they were lumps of clay instead of part of her being. Morganite had never used a term of endearment on her before, and she was smart enough to know the one she’d just spat at her was bitterly sarcastic. “I… er… I….”_ _

__“My bad!” Ruby suddenly leapt before her, both arms flapping around. “I, uh, I saw the lights on and I thought somebody might be breaking in! So I rushed right up to investigate! Like the loyal guard I am!!”_ _

__She held her pose and her smile, perspiring visibly, as Morganite glared down at her with a visage both frosty and unreadable. “You saw lights on _at this level_ … and assumed someone was breaking in?”_ _

__“That’s right!”_ _

__“Forty-seven stories up?”_ _

__Her left eye flickered when a hot, acrid bead of sweat stung at it, but she didn’t blink. “Um… yup! Sure was worried!”_ _

__“Really.” She moved her eyes to the bed. “And the ruined pillows?”_ _

__“Me, too! That was my bad, too!” Ruby said, her voice a few decibels too loud for indoors. “When I came in, I saw P… er, _your_ Pearl sewing and I offered to help with the pillows. Ah, ah heh… then I remembered too late that I couldn’t sew!” She snapped her index and thumb, then rather over-dramatically slapped her forehead. “Silly me!”_ _

__Pearl could feel her fingers curling into crooks, her knees beginning to rattle---there was _no way_ that performance was believable---but Morganite simply closed her eyes and put a hand to her gem. “Honestly, only a Ruby could be that stupid,” she muttered._ _

__Pearl’s belly billowed out as she let it unclench. _Thank the stars for small miracles.__ _

__Striding up to them, Morganite used her left hand to seize Pearl by the wrist and yanked her off the bed; then right she used on Ruby. “Up and off, both of you,” she snapped. “You’ve created enough of a clutter and I won’t have you making it worse. Now, _you_.” Under the lightning of her eyes, Pearl shot up into a proper position, arms straight as arrows by her side. “You’re to follow Ruby. And _you_.” Ruby’s heels clacked together as she jumped to the floor. “You’re to escort Pearl to the back room. Once there, pick out a whip and whet it so that it will bruise her without cutting her skin.” She rose back to her full height and stared down at them with her lips as thin as a razor. “Is. That. Understood?!”_ _

__Pearl bobbed her head mutely, but Ruby, for whatever demented reason, decided to disagree: “W-with all due respect, my Morganite, I don’t. U-understand, that is.”_ _

__Her cheek wrinkled from her sneer. “Oh? And why is that? Aside from your profound idiocy, of course.”_ _

__“Uh… Erm…” The loose fold on the back of her uniform was vibrating back and forth from how hard the muscles below it were trembling, and Pearl almost reached out to put a soothing hand on her back. “I-i-if I understand the situation right, er, _I_ was the one entirely at fault here. So why is _Pearl_ the one to be whipped…?”_ _

__Pearl had to clench her fists and tense her thigh muscles to keep from fainting, and eventually managed to blink away the black spots crowding her vision. If the breath hitching in her throat made any noise, Morganite didn’t seem to notice---if anything, she speared to relax, her scowl of disapproval inching back a few notches._ _

__“Ruby,” she said with an unusual tenor, “I do believe you have achieved a personal first. No,” she quickly corrected herself, “Not only a first, but an actual _improvement_ in my eyes. For once… you have impressed me.”_ _

__She grinned brightly._ _

__“You, despite your inherent failings, have correctly assessed a situation.” She gave her a smile that could have boiled acid. “You _are_ entirely in the wrong here. And you will be whipped accordingly.”_ _

__Her smile drooped in the middle, like a dying thing struggling against its pinned corners. _“Yes, my Morganite! How excellent, my Morganite!”_ she said, strained, halfway to a shout._ _

__Satisfied, Morganite’s pallid eyes landed on Pearl, who still hadn’t faltered from her rigid stance. “Pearl,” she said calmly, “The same orders now apply to you. Take Ruby to the back room, and prepare the whip.”_ _

__“Yes,” she mouthed out. Then, after clearing her throat and fumbling around for her voice, she added “Of course, my Morganite.”_ _

__She put one hand on Ruby’s elbow, the other on her wrist, and it only took a few staggering tries before she could stand straight up again, albeit with her eyes focused steadfastly on the carpet by Morganite’s feet. “Three steps to the door,” Pearl whispered in her ear, “Swerve towards me to get around her. Come on, now.”_ _

__Morganite’s eyes followed them as they stumbled in a zig-zagging back-and-forth, and when Pearl had her free hand on the side of the doorframe, she gave them a parting shot: “And make sure to be back here post-haste, Pearl. You have a mess to tidy up.”_ _

__“Yes, my Morganite,” she said to the closing door._ _

__They walked like that, locked onto each other, their strides mismatched and elbows rattling, all the way to the staircase---and that’s when the hammering of Ruby’s legs brought her to her knees. Pearl was right by her side, trying to shuffle out some weak consolations, but Ruby had already folded, her eyes up to the stained ceiling._ _

__“Oh my stars,” she gasped, “Oh, ho ho HOOOO my Diamonds! Pearl, do you know what that _was?!_ ”_ _

__“Yes, it was a very clever dodge.”_ _

__“No!” Ruby shrieked. She forced her arm around so that she could grab at Pearl’s hand and nearly crushed it to powder. “We… we…. We almost got shattered!”_ _

__“Ruby---”_ _

__“No, you don’t get it! I…” When she blinked, it was like a bursting dam---boiling-hot tears suddenly poured down her cheeks, dribbling from her chin and turning to foam before they hit the floor. “I almost got us shattered! We coulda died! I almost got _you_ killed!”_ _

__“Ruby!”_ _

__“And all--- _gasp_ \--- because of how--- _gasp_ \--- **stupid** I am, I…”_ _

__Her stubby ankles crumpled from beneath her, and Pearl had to jump two steps down to keep her from rolling right down the stairs. Not knowing quite what to do, she settled for placing a cool hand on Ruby’s forehead, the other giving gentle squeezes to her forearm; she alternated between murmuring condolences and a few well-timed “ _Attagirl_ ”s until the tsunami of panic began to ebb away._ _

__Eventually the rictus of horror on her face chipped away, and piece by piece, Ruby returned to normal, like a statue being carved in reverse. Still crushing Pearl’s hand in her fist, she let out a fragile chuckle, and, wiping sweat from her brow, looked up at her new friend. “Holy shit,” she said weakly. “I swear my whole life flashed before my eyes!”_ _

__Pearl smiled at her in agreement. So much for her thinking _she_ was the worldly one---the terror she’d just seen etched in this Ruby’s eyes showed her she still had a lot to learn… and a lot to fear._ _

__“Hoo boy,” Ruby huffed as she smeared her knuckles over her runny nose. Though it didn’t do much more than smear the snot around, the face she turned up to Pearl had a simple, quiet kind of dignity to it. “Uh… guess you better follow orders, huh?”_ _

__“Yes,” she said with a voice that sounded as if broken and stitched back together. “Whet the whip.”_ _

__“Uh-huh.”_ _

__“And if I whet it with mineral oil… it won’t hit quite as hard.”_ _

__She laughed---not a tiny giggle, but an outright _laugh_ \---at Ruby’s stunned expression. “Why did you do that, you absolute dummy?” Pearl whispered. “Why take a whipping for me?”_ _

__“Why not?”_ _

__Her head sagged, but her smile stayed put. “I owe you one.”_ _

__“Naw, we’re even. I put it on you by infringing on your territory.”_ _

__Their hands in each other’s, they sort of awkwardly stumbled to their feet, Ruby three stairs above Pearl, making them almost eye-level. “The… the speakeasy?” Pearl began, leaning closer._ _

__Ruby smiled. “Yeah?”_ _

__“Maybe…” She looked down and fidgeted a finger back and forth across those sturdy red knuckles. “Maybe sometime we can dance onstage together. To earn our snifters.”_ _

__Her lower lip pulled between her teeth, but she hadn’t stopped smiling. In fact, it was actually wider. “Sure thing, Pearl. Uh… can I call you Pearl?”_ _

__Her head bobbed, and she blushed when she realized her gem was starting to glow. “Why, of course you can, Ruby. After all… you’re a cut above.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> "Sub saxa" = Literally "Under the rocks". From our "sub rosa", which literally means "under the rose" but actually means "we speak in secret".
> 
> So, continuing with my (apparent) theme of naming stories after songs, here's the early 90's lesbian anthem [Come To My Window](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaY5-LGYJKc)!
> 
> After writing about Padparadscha's past, I couldn't help but take a peek into Rhodonite's. I had so much fun writing Morganite, since she's a real See You Next Tuesday, and I funneled a lot of my pent-up grief into her. Here's what she looks like, BTW:
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> Anyway, thanks so much for reading! :D


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